Hello Chromebook

If you don’t already know this about me, I’m hell on electronic things. My husband calls me “magnet fingers” because I break everything electronic–phones, remote controls and, especially, computers. I can’t even tell you how many computers I’ve gone through in the past five years–probably five? In 2010 I thought I had the answer–Mac, of course. Not–I managed to break that too somehow. I think I got a Dell after that, and the an HP after that. The HP was pretty good for a while there….until the battery life started getting shorter and shorter and the bottom of the laptop hotter and hotter. I stuck a meat thermometer under there a few weeks ago just to see how hot it actually was–I am not kidding that it got up to almost 150 degrees!! (I took the photo above when it reached 130 degrees–then it kept going up.) HP did not seem overly alarmed about the prospect of a customer burning their legs on a 150 degree computer and, after initially reaching out to me on Twitter after I was asking for opinions on Chrombooks, never followed up and was, I guess, content knowing that their computers get hot enough to fry something on.

So I just stopped using it and using a computer at home for the most part, which kind of puts a wrench in things in terms of, oh, say, blogging. I love my iPad and everything, but not for blogging.

So last Friday night curiosity got the best of me and I ordered a Samsung Chromebook for $238. I figured it was at least worth a try–better than either continuing to do without a laptop or burning my legs off using it for the 30 minutes of battery life it was good for.

It arrived yesterday and I have to say I’m half in love. It’s tiny–a bit tinier than I’d like, actually–not much bigger than an iPad. Fine for travel but this is my sole computer unless I feel like sitting at a desktop, which I mostly don’t. It’s light as a feather–I think about one pound. It’s adorable and sleek and boots up super quickly and works just fine for my purposes so far.

If you don’t know what a Chromebook is, it’s basically a laptop that is only a web browser. No Microsoft Office, no programs at all–just Chrome, Google stuff like Drive, and whatever else you can access on the Internet. Which, for me, is everything I use, so I don’t really need a “real” computer.

My hands are a bit cramped from the keyboard (ok, truthfully, more from playing Pet Rescue Saga and Farm Heroes Saga on Facebook for about a billion hours last night…) and I don’t really love the trackpad. And, as I said before, the screen is a bit tiny for old-person eyes like mine. But the battery life is awesome (so far–we’ll see how long it lasts with my magnet fingers), it does everything I need a computer to do and doesn’t get hot enough to burn a hole through my thighs. All for less than $250–which is way cheaper than an iPad or even a Kindle Fire.